Jackie Fried

Jacqueline C. Fried, of Short Hills, New Jersey, died on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Morristown Medical Center, surrounded by her family. She was 52. The cause was Ovarian Cancer, which she battled valiantly for nearly five years. Jackie was born on October 8th, 1963 in upper Manhattan and raised in the Bronx by her late father, Harry Koenigstein, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, and her loving mother, Marilyn. At age 11 her family moved to Staten Island so that her sister, Millie, who suffers from Down’s Syndrome, could attend a better school for her needs. Jackie attended public school and met her future husband at Susan Wagner High School, although they did not date at that time. She attended Syracuse University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in retailing in 1985. She returned home after college, began her first professional job as an assistant buyer at A&S department store in Brooklyn, and dated her future husband for a short time (and then broke up with him because she was not ready to be “serious”). After a couple of years, she decided to realize a long-standing dream and move to Israel. The fact that she didn’t speak Hebrew and didn’t know anyone there other than a few cousins was not a deterrent. She found a job as an international sales manager at an Israeli plastics company and moved to Tel Aviv where she learned to speak fluent Hebrew, got her own apartment and stayed for four years. She returned to the U.S. just as her future husband was finishing law school and they resumed their relationship and were married on January 16, 1993.

Soon after returning, she also decided to change career direction and obtained a degree in Diagnostic Medical Sonography from New York University. She worked as an ultrasound technician at several hospitals in New York City including, New York Downtown Hospital and NYU Medical Center.

She discontinued her professional career after her first child was born and stayed home to raise her three wonderful daughters, Emma, Arielle and Julia, to whom she was an extraordinary mother, friend, counselor, fashion advisor, softball coach, art instructor, shopping buddy, disciplinarian, mentor and role model. She loved her girls more than anything else.

She served as a volunteer for numerous school and community organizations, including twenty years with the Millburn/Short Hills Tziona Chapter of Hadassah (from whom she received the 2014/2015 Woman of the Year Award) and working as an EMT and serving as a Trustee for the Millburn/Short Hills Volunteer First Aid Squad. When she turned forty, she decided to learn to play the guitar and went on to co-found an all-woman rock band, The Mood Swings, which played regularly at local bars, events and parties for ten years. At about the same time, she decided that, despite her self-described lack of creativity, she would also try some craft projects and soon became a highly-skilled craftsperson, creating beautiful jewelry, mosaics, pottery and woodwork. She went on to run an arts and crafts program for over 300 campers for five summers at Camp Kinder Ring in Hopewell Junction, New York, which was the sleep-away camp two of her children attended and which she had also attended and worked at for nine summers when growing up. In recognition of her service and commitment, she was named a Torchbearer, the camp’s highest honor, at a beautiful ceremony in summer, 2013.

She was a person of remarkable strength, talent, vitality, energy, common sense and practicality. She was also funny, direct and famously tough, yet also unpretentious, charming and tender. She loved music and knew the lyrics to nearly every rock and roll song, and many Broadway and pop hits. She loved nothing more than turning up the radio and singing along at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t sit still and always had to have a project...and could accomplish anything she set her mind to…whether it was renovating a kitchen and two complete bathrooms on her own or sewing curtains or stripping and refinishing furniture. Hers was an example of a life well lived, and she was respected, loved and admired by many.

She is survived by her three beloved daughters, Emma, Arielle and Julia, and her husband, Stuart Fried; also by her mother, Marilyn Koenigstein (nee Mayer), sister Millicent Koenigstein, and half-brother Keith Koenigstein. Services were held on March 10, 2016 at Bernheim Apter Kreitzman Suburban Funeral Chapel in Livingston, New Jersey. Donations can be made to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (New York, NY) and to Memories Live (Summit, NJ).